Mark Edwards is the bestselling author of psychological thrillers such as Follow You Home, Because She Loves Me and The Magpies. Before going solo, Mark published a number of police procedurals written with Louise Voss including Killing Cupid and Forward Slash. He and Voss also have a series featuring DI Patrick Lennon, starting with From The Cradle and followed by The Blissfully Dead which came out last year.

Mark’s latest thriller, The Devil’s Work, is out on 13th September. You can pre-order it here.

In the introduction I reference this wonderful podcast episode from Joanna Penn and talk about my own journey over the last eight years.

Joanna talks about the value of measuring your progress in ‘Olympics’ and seeing how much you have got done or how your life as changed in four-year cycles.

It’s important to look up from the day-to-day grind and take stock of what you have achieved and to set goals for the future, and I think this ‘big picture’ overview is a great addition to the monthly and yearly goal-setting I already do!

I also mention the audio book for The Language of Spells, which I have commissioned. It should be available to buy in a couple of weeks time and you can read more/see the cover reveal by heading to my author site.

In the interview:

Mark talks us through his long – and difficult – journey to overnight success!

On writing:

‘I think that being a writer is so hard, the process of writing itself and all the stuff that goes around it, that you have to have it in you, you have to have that drive.’

For people who want to write:

‘Just get started, just do it. And if you aren’t a writer you won’t keep going and if you are a writer, you will.’

On the writing process:

‘I don’t think you can rush yourself, you have to have time to reflect and let the story settle in your head.’

‘I don’t plot it out, I don’t use any kind of act structure…. Somehow from reading so much, the template is there in my head and I’m writing to that without being aware of it.’

On writing dark or shocking material and self-censorship:

‘To me, books really have to divide opinion. So if I think I’m writing something that some people are going to hate or are going to be offended by, then I think it’s probably good idea to keep it in there’

‘There’s nothing worse than being bland and safe… Take risks!’

If you have a writing (or publishing) question that you’d like me to tackle in a future episode, please get in touch via email or Twitter.

I’ll answer it on the show and credit you (unless, of course, you ask to remain anonymous).